Pride was pouting, sitting on the edge of his seat as he fiddled pointlessly with the radio. There was an plate of food next to him, but most of the food on it was barely touched. Kage was perched on the edge, gnawing on a scrap of meat.

Elysia sighed, her mother was long asleep, having only been awake for an hour after they both arrived in a sorry state. They had both gotten dried off and - after a rather long nap - Pride had awoken in a foul mood.

The homunculus wasn't taking it out on her though like she expected. Instead, he was simply simmering in his rage as he plotted. He drummed his fingers in time to some pointless tune on the radio. A long sigh escaped him as he realized that he had no other options, "I need your help."

Elysia raised her hand to her mouth in shock, "No, really?" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, "I would have never guessed."

Pride glared at her, "I can't do anything as long as I'm being weakened by this poison." He idly flipped the radio station, "We need to return to Alphonse to see if he can cure it with alkahestry - fashioning an elixir to cure it or something of that nature."

"I'm sure you're just ecstatic about asking your former enemy for help." Elysia commented, watching him carefully.

Pride sighed heavily, "You just said it - my former enemy. Alliances change and loyalties sway, even mine." A dark look crossed over his face, "I'll stay loyal to those who remain the same to me." His eyes were absolutely burning now, "I won't make the same mistake twice."

Elysia hummed, before nodding slowly. "Alright, I'll help you."

Pride's head shot up, "What?"

"You need help, I'll help you." Elysia responded, "Can't have you dying when you've really done nothing wrong - despite what my uncle thinks."

Pride opened his mouth to respond, but Elysia threw a pillow at his head.

"Something done to save someone else doesn't count."

Pride opened his mouth again, and then shut it. For once, he was struck with absolutely nothing to say. He just nodded, a genuine smile gracing his face.

"You really are an idiot." Elysia huffed.

Selim huffed, "I'm really getting tired of you calling me that."

"Then do something to prove me wrong."

Selim crossed his arms, "Let's just find Alphonse."

"It's almost four in the morning!" Elysia squeaked, "I haven't gotten any sleep yet!"

"Then I'll go to Alphonse, you stay here and sleep."

Elysia shook her head, getting up and heading to the kitchen. She returned holding a mug of lukewarm coffee that she had made earlier, "Now I'll be fine, let's go."

Selim shook his head, "You're going to get addicted to that soon."

"Too late."

Selim and Elysia entered the hotel with little resistance, though the receptionist did stop them when they reached the lobby.

"Can I help you two?"

Selim smiled charmingly, "My sister and I just arrived here with our mother and she sent us in ahead of her to meet up with our father. We already know what room he's staying in, is it okay if we go up to meet him?"

The receptionist looked unsure; there was probably some policy against letting in people without a room key at night. "Well, I can always call up to the room to announce that you have arrived."

Selim waved his hand, "No need, miss! Our father already knows that we're here, we called before we arrived."

The receptionist frowned, "I still should probably call-"

A shadow whipped the back of her head roughly, sending the woman slumping onto her desk.

Elysia gasped, "Did you just kill her?"

Selim crossed his arms, "You have no faith in me, she's just unconscious."

"That doesn't make it any better!" She stomped on Selim's foot viciously, "You idiot!"

Pride pulled his foot out from under hers as she lifted her rain boot off of his toes, "Let's go, she's only going to be out for a few minutes." He stumbled slightly as he walked away, his now injured foot causing him pain, but he recovered quickly as he stalked away. Elysia watched him curiously - it seemed like he was still in pain. A lot of pain to be exact, his hands were shaking as he shoved them into his pockets.

"Don't fall behind," he called over his shoulder, trying to hit the call button on the elevator. It only took him three tries to properly press the button.

With no one else using the elevator, it arrived immediately and they boarded it. Selim's health was deteriorating more rapidly now, his temporary fix seemed to have finally worn off. His hands were white-knuckled as he clutched the railing in the elevator and his legs were beginning to shake under him. Suddenly, his hands slipped and he crashed into the wall. Selim slid to the floor with a thud and he tried to push himself up - but his arms were like gelatin, flopping about uselessly. He cursed loudly - something that he rarely ever did, he always saw himself as above that.

He turned his head and looked at Elysia, "A little help here?"

Elysia grasped the hand that he feebly held out, noting how his fingers twitched, but he didn't return her grip, "Are you ever going to make it there?" She asked as she pulled him up, draping his arm around her shoulders and struggling under his weight to hold him up.

He chuckled grimly, "I'll manage. My arms are almost done for though, I'd refresh them but I need the souls for other uses."

Elysia shuddered at the thought, "You can regrow your arms too? What about your head?" The elevator announced that it reached their floor with a cheerful ding.

Selim raised his head and shook it, "It's the base for my body, I would have to re-grow a whole new body as opposed to just a head." The doors slid open and the two struggled out and down the hall, Selim bearing most of his weight on Elysia.

"Why?"

"This body would fall to ashes."

Elysia rolled her eyes, "Yes, I saw that with your legs. Why don't you just do that to cure the poisoning then?"

Selim ground his teeth, "Do you know how difficult it is to re-grow a body? And how taxing that is on my stone?" He shook his head, "Even if I did survive it, I would be too weak to do anything."

Elysia heaved a sigh of relief as she knocked on Ed and Al's door, "Do you think they'll help us?"

A shadow curled around Selim, "I'm not taking no for an answer."

"I don't think that'll help anything."

A few minutes passed with no response. Elysia adjusted her hold on Selim's arms and knocked again.

Another minute passed before the door opened slightly, the chain secured to the wall holding it open only about two inches as Edward peered out at them.

"Pride?" He sounded more confused than angry as he rubbed at his eyes with a yawn, "What are you doing back here? And why do you have to drag Elysia into all of your problems?"

"You make it sound like I intentionally seek out trouble." Pride noted.

"And you don't?"

Pride only closed his eyes and released a breath, "I need Alphonse's help."

"What?" Ed barked in surprise.

Pride glared at him, "You know what, just tell me, can you help me or not?"

Ed shuffled his feet before sighing, "Al, wake up!" He leaned out of the doorway to fully address his brother, "Can you cure this?"

"I think so, depends how long he's been poisoned." Al opened the door fully, observing Pride carefully. "You've deteriorated a lot in a short amount of time."

"Really? I couldn't tell."

Al nodded to Elysia, "Get him onto the far bed." He turned to Ed, "I'll need my supplies too."

The room was empty apart from the two brothers as she helped Pride to the bed, easing him down. The homunculus only winced in pain, not making a sound as he laid back, "This bed is pretty worn out, isn't it?"

Ed scowled and crossed his arms, "We picked this hotel in an attempt to keep you away, not based on luxury." Nevertheless, he retrieved a large bag from under the bed and placed it next to Al.

The younger blond waved his brother off, placing his hands on Pride's head. "You're weaker than you're letting on, aren't you?"

Pride huffed, looking away and trying to focus his mind on something besides the pain currently wracking through his body. "Just focus on fixing it."

Al nodded, closing his eyes. "This is going to be difficult, but I think I can do it."

Elysia wasn't sure what exactly happened for the past two hours, but Pride's devilish grin at the end of it as he sprung to his feet answered her questions on the outcome. She had spent the better part of her wait conversing with Ed when he wasn't helping Alphonse make another batch of medicine or talking to Winry on the phone - Henry and Winry were both on their way back to Resembool, Henry was starting his first day of school and it wouldn't bode well for him to miss that.

The homunculus swung his arms, clenching his fists and twisting his spine. "Perfect," he closed his eyes. "It's gone."

"You aren't better yet," Alphonse wiped the sweat off of his brow, holding a cup up to the light as he inspected it. "That is a lot of thallium and you're going to have to drink more of this if you don't want the poison to start working again." He wrote down a few measurements on a piece of paper, "The poison's effect has only been cancelled out by the medicine's reaction to it. It will take time for it to clear out of your system." Golden eyes surveyed him questioningly, "How can you miscalculate and ingest that much poison?"

Pride clenched his teeth, "It was a slip-up-" His shadow was expanding, but it withdrew immediately as he noticed its movements. He couldn't kill the Elrics after they helped him like this, now he was indebted to both of them. "It doesn't matter now, Mr. Jian better be enjoying his hospital visit because I have the oddest feeling that it is going to end soon."

"What?" Ed snapped, "There's no need for you to kill anyone." He clenched his fists, "We just helped you, can you not make me regret it for two seconds?" He grabbed Pride as the homunculus attempted to turn away, "I saved you that day because I saw something that your other siblings didn't have! Why can't you see that and change? Do you really have to kill - can't you find some other way?"

Selim almost looked ashamed of himself as he pulled himself out of Ed's grip, "How can I learn something so foreign to me?" He mumbled, "Thank you, Alphonse."

Al nodded, looking surprised at the gratitude, "Just think about what Ed told you, Selim."

Selim gave a curt nod, looking uncomfortable, "Give my regards to Henry," he smirked, "I'll have to go visit him in Resembool sometime."

Ed blanched, "You can't just visit my-"

Selim ushered Elysia out the door and waved cheekily, shutting the door before Ed could finish.

"You don't have to terrorize them like that," Elysia told him.

Selim shrugged, "I find it amusing."

Elysia yawned, "So where to next?"

Pride's eyes glittered, his shadows pressing the button on the elevator, "I'm going to pay a certain detective a visit."

"Right now?" Elysia squeaked as they boarded the elevator once again.

"No," Pride responded, shaking his head and holding the button to close the doors, "Tomorrow he's visiting Mother for lunch, and I want you to intercept him before he can arrive at my house."

Elysia frowned in confusion, "What?"

"Listen carefully," he leaned against the wall with broad grin. "I've been playing with this plan ever since Hansel caught me at a disadvantage."

Author's Note: Ta-da! This was a rough one, so many articles were read... On the bright side, you all now have this pretty chapter that's been edited twice by myself and Undeadmonkey8! On the other hand, grammar is evil and sneaky and I really shouldn't listen to music and write. Some things won't be changed though. I'd like to thanks everyone who's reviewed/favorited/followed and a huge thanks to my beta!

Krazyfanfiction1: Thank you! And that's an interesting theory that I have no direct answer for. I've always thought of the philosopher's stone like a gas tank, and the souls being the gas to power the homunculi. It just seemed easier that way without having to worry about soul energy along with soul count... Soul count is a horrible thing to keep track off. I don't recall any red stones in Brotherhood, I've only seen that one and there wasn't any alternative for souls in that.

The Keeper of Worlds: I'm going to get put on a watch-list because of all this research I've done on poisons. I'm surprised I didn't run across that in my research before, but then again, I needed something pretty common and easy enough to understand, so thallium was a good fit. And thank you! I had to think a lot on that to make sure it was actually plausible. XD

LtD: Theoretically that actually could work, but like you said, the pain would probably be so bad that you wouldn't be able to move. Yeah, pinkie fingers are good, I never use them to type because I just don't but they're useful for other things, like holding stuff and its nice to just have them. Glad to know Elysia is back up in the favorite characters, she's been a bit moody recently but she has came around.